Top-10 shots from Austin Country Club at WGC – Dell Match Play

Voting has now been completed for the Round of 16 and quarterfinals of our Mythical Match Play Championship. That means we’re down to the final four players from the original field of 64, leaving us with these two semifinal matches:

• Rory McIlroy vs. Xander Schauffele

• Jon Rahm vs. Sungjae Im

Our fans helped to break three ties in the Round of 16 matches. With our 10 expert voters deadlocked at 5-5 for matches involving Schauffele vs. Hideki Matsuyama, Im vs. Collin Morikawa and Rahm vs. Marc Leishman, we enlisted the help of fans via the Twitter account of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Schauffele, Im and Rahm earned the nods, and now they’ve each won another match to joine the world’s No. 1 player as the four survivors after clear-cut voting from the experts in the quarterfinals.

Our Mythical event is the just-for-fun exercise we’re conducting this week in lieu of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, which was among the canceled events by the PGA TOUR in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The TOUR conducted a draw to produce a bracket, and now our 10 experts are voting for the winner of each match. We released the Round 1 results on Wednesday (click here), the Round 2 results on Thursday (click here) and the Round 3 results on Friday (click here) that determined the 16 survivors advancing to the single-elimination phase. We’ll crown the Mythical Match Play champion on Sunday.

QUARTERFINALS

Why I picked McIlroy: "I was surprised to see the injured Oosthuizen advance -- I had him going 0-3-0 in his pool -- so not only is McIlroy in better form than everyone else, he's also more rested to face anyone later in the same day, much less Simpson, who grinded past Patrick Cantlay in the Round of 16." - Rob Bolton

Why I picked Schauffele: “Statistically, these two are so close. In five of the six Strokes Gained categories, they are within 6 ranking positions of each other. Ultimately, I based my decision on Sunday Singles at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. Schauffele knocked off the biggest homegrown star in Adam Scott, while JT lost to young Aussie Cameron Smith.” – Mike McAllister

Why I picked Rahm: “While Reed is incredibly tough in match play, so, too, is this Spanish star who has previously been threatening to win it all at Austin CC. A 30-foot birdie on 18 seals a 1-up win.” – Ben Everill

Why I picked Thomas: “Even though Poulter is the guy with the long-term reputation for stepping it up in match play events, Thomas is a sneaky 10-3-2 over the last three years of Ryder/Presidents Cup competitions, proving his skills translate well to this format.” – Jason Sobel

Why I picked Schauffele: “Xander is a pit-bull who waits for the slightest scrap and attacks. The first missed putt from Hideki would provide Schauffele a lead he would never relinquish.” – Ben Everill

Why I picked Rahm: “Leishman is a tough match play guy with two trips to the round of 16 in the last three years, but 2017 runner-up Rahm is so comfy in Austin, he looks destined to win this tournament someday.” – Cameron Morfit

Why we picked Reed: “Both players are really similar in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green ranking T-38 (Reed) and 34th (Fleetwood). However, Reed has a huge edge on and around the greens, ranking 38th in SG: Around-the-Green & third in SG: Putting to Fleetwood’s 176th SG: Around-the-Green & 96th in SG: Putting. Reed has Fleetwood by over a stroke on and around the greens per round this season on TOUR.” – ShotLink team

Why I picked Im: “Quite the battle among two of the PGA TOUR’s biggest and brightest young stars. This one comes down to putting – Im ranks 36th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season while Morikawa ranks 174th.” – Mike McAllister

Why I picked Scott: “Having not played a lot in recent weeks, a fourth straight match for Tiger could catch up with him. Scott's putting has improved drastically in the last 18 months and that helps him knock off the Masters champ.” – Jamie Kennedy